italy journal #8: ciao italia, from two americans

Thursday

25 gennaio 2018

We couldn’t check out of that Airbnb fast enough! Pierre was super kind and helpful to us, but I'm going to give his place a real review, so that other people can be warned before booking his place. 
We spent the morning exploring the city a bit more and eating pizza. I know I'm going to miss this Italian pizza. We had to catch a bus back to Rome in the early afternoon. 

As we were waiting for the bus, we made friends with couple from Prague. They spoke little English, no Italian, no French and of course we can’t speak Czech at all. We were able to get to know each other using English though. They were an older couple whose kids have all grown up. Giuseppe said, “wow! We could be your kids!” and they laughed. 

He is a philosopher who works for several universities and she is a professor of sociology. They love traveling and they told us about their favorite European countries. We asked them if they'd ever traveled to the US, and he said no, and they weren't going to because they didn't want to! Haha we tried to sell America to him by talking about our national parks and big cities and diversity but he was not interested. He said we have no history or culture.

Honestly, I thought that was pretty rude, especially coming from a philosopher, someone who is supposed to be open to new ideas. So we asked questions about their country and their culture, and every answer was tainted with, "the way we do things is the best way." I was getting so annoyed! Soon the bus came and we parted ways. 

Today's bus ride took 5 hours, so we really didn't get to do much unfortunately. We were able to see a lot of the Italian countryside though. I wish we could be nomads and drop everything and spend a month or two living amongst Italians in vineyards!

We stopped at a gas station halfway through and bought gas station pizza. And wouldn’t you know, it was delicious.

Our Airbnb for our last night in Italy is on the coast, about 30 minutes outside of Rome, near the airport. We arrived around 7 and met our super kind hosts. We ended up having the entire apartment to ourselves! This Airbnb is AMAZING! Pristine. Modern. Decorated. Fully stocked. Sparkling- literally. There is sparkle wallpaper everywhere! It's amazing. We are in love with this place.

We walked around the quiet neighborhood looking for a place to eat. There weren’t many restaurants, and most of them were seafood restaurants. I love seafood, but thanks to my job at the sushi restaurant, I need a long break from fish.

We eventually came to pier and were out of options. I saw a restaurant called Old Wild West and my mouth started watering imagining a burger and fries. Italy has great food, but you can only have pasta and pizza for so long! American food is just what we were craving. Our last meal in Italy, at an American restaurant... Will I regret this one day?

The burgers and fries (and chocolate cake...) were delicious. The restaurant was decorated with pictures of Texas, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Facing our table was a large TV screen playing footage of snowboarders in Park City! It was perfect when we started chatting with our waiter and he asked where we were from. I pointed to the TV screen, “...there.” He just thought that was the coolest thing!

We woke up early to catch a bus to the airport. Our last sight of Italy was the morning sun on the Mediterranean waters. Leaving a wonderful place is the saddest feeling. Good thing I have the crippling anxiety of all that homework I've procrastinated to distract me... 

italy journal #7: thoughts on travel + why I love italian culture

Wednesday

24 gennaio 2017

We couldn't get out of that apartment fast enough this morning! For breakfast we stopped at the grocery store below our apartment building and I got some focaccia. It was horrible! Dry, crumbly, and flavorless. I guess cheap bread is cheap bread no matter where you are. I put it in my purse to give to a homeless person, and sure enough I was able to give it away quickly. The homeless man's gratitude for the bread was so sweet- unlike a haggard woman in Florence who walked up to everyone moaning “per mangare!” (to eat) and shaking her little cup of coins in your face. When I gave her a sandwich from my purse, she almost didn’t even take it! She finally did, begrudgingly... But then went right back to asking for money "so she could eat"! Stick to your story, woman... 

We went to a modern art museum and it was pretty entertaining. My favorite was a video presentation made in 2004. It was footage of hundreds of tourists trying to get a picture of the Mona Lisa, at the Louvre in Paris. Lots of pushing and showing and shouting. Everybody was staring into their camera screens or fixing their hair for their picture with the painting. It was really long footage, and even though people came and went the behavior was always the same.

It reminded me of our experience at the Trevi Fountain in Rome, with a swarming crowd staring into their camera lenses and shoving their way to the front. Girls stared into their screens, making their eyes big and their lips puffy so they could take the perfect selfie with the fountain. Photographers walked around bugging everyone to buy a photo from them. 

It made me think, “why are they here?" and then, "Why am I here?” I don’t want to be a vanity traveler, showing up to take a pic and then leave. I took a lot of pictures this trip, mostly because I felt like I hardly took any when I was in France last summer and I wanted more physical memories for myself. I guess I’m still looking for the perfect balance between appreciating the moment and documenting it for the memories.

After the museum we went to a nearby park where Giuseppe had spent a lot of time doing contacting on his mission. It’s turned into a different social scene over the years... the second we walked in, a guy approached us and asked (in English), 
“do you guys want the stuffs?”
“What stuff?” 
“You know, the stuffs.” 
“No man, thanks, but we’re good.” 
“You sure?” 
“Yeah man.” 
I guess just being in the park means you want “the stuffs” because almost everyone was eyeing us with a grin, waiting for us to approach them. Giuseppe said, “it seems like all you have to do to send the wrong message is accidentally nod in someone’s direction-“ and sure enough, as he nodded, a guy came over and said, “are you looking for something??”

So funny! Haha this poor park was really at it's worst. Dead trees, debris, dry fountains, meandering youths, graffiti... Haha not at all how Giuseppe remembered it.

Anyway, lunch was AMAZING. We went to a cute restaurant and ordered homemade tortellini. I got a butter and sage dish and it was amaaaazing. The food in Bologna really is the best.

One of the coolest things in Bologna is a really old tower in the center of the city, a tower that isn't quite 90 degrees. We climbed up to the top! It was freaky climbing up the ancient rickety wooden stairs. There were SO MANY of them! The view from the top was beautiful, especially because it was during golden hour.

We then toured a bit of the college campus- it's the oldest university in the world that is still in operation! We spent most of our time in the very old anatomy classroom. 

We asked someone if they knew of a café nearby to get some drinks to warm us up. A wise old Italian man put his arm around Giuseppe and told him, in depth, exactly how to get to a nearby café. This happened yesterday too when Giuseppe asked for a nearby pizzeria. Giuseppe said the men here really like to take on the role of the wise old man guiding the youth. I couldn't understand any of these conversations of course, but they did seem to be quite philosophical. We ended up at a Emporio Armani café... And it was just as designer as you'd think! Haha. 

And of course we toured the grandest basilica in the city!

Our Airbnb host Pierre-seriously the nicest guy- directed us to a great place for dinner with homemade pasta, steak, and dessert. It was so cheap too! 

We had the best time at dinner! I'll never forget it. We stayed for almost two hours, enjoying every course and talking and laughing and getting to know our server. I wish every dinner of my life could be like this! It was fun to eat leisurely and just talk and talk. 

Giuseppe taught me how to say, “I’ll have a small salad” in Italian and I made up a song to remember it. We still can’t get the little jingle out of our heads! “Facho una insalata picola”. 

The best part of the meal was our waitress! She was the cutest, most passionate Italian woman. She reminded me so much of Giuseppe’s mom! She had her exact eyes, mouth, and facial expressions. I couldn't stop staring at her! I wish my mother-in-law could have been there and met her. She was so excited to hear Giuseppe speak Italian. I think it's funny how in almost every restaurant we've been too, we really bond with our server! Everyone here is so friendly and passionate about the food. 

Today was magical! I love Italian culture. I wish we could be here longer and get to know more people and experience more cities. But alas, tomorrow is our last day... 

italy journal #6: florence to bologna, the highs and lows.

Tuesday
23 gennaio 2018

I think last night was my worst night of sleep ever! We threw in a load of laundry when we got home only to find that the shortest cycle is two hours long! It was already late and we wanted to go to bed soon, so I decided to set an alarm and wake up around 2 to switch the laundry to the dryer. Giuseppe had already done so much for me that week, I told him he was not allowed to do the laundry and to just keep sleeping. 

It seemed like I had just fallen asleep when the alarm went off. I went out to the kitchen to switch the laundry, but the machine was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. It was a two-in-one machine, so I didn't even need to take the clothes out, just turn the dryer setting on. But of course it was all written in Italian so I had to translate everything on my phone. I was getting worried because it seemed like no matter how many different button combinations I tried, the only dryer cycles I could chose from were either 15 minutes or 2 hours! I was afraid of burning our clothes because I remember the dryer at my host family's place in Grenoble was finicky and that if I left the machine on for more than 15 minutes the clothes would get to a really freaky temperature. 

The bad news was that I couldn't air dry the clothes because we had to leave in the morning to catch our bus to Bologna and we didn't want to have a suitcase full of wet clothes! I chose the 15 minute cycle and decided to wait and to see if the clothes would get really hot. I started the dryer and immediately freaked out because it was SO LOUD. The light was on in the loft upstairs and I thought maybe Guido was up there trying to sleep. I thought he had said he didn't even live here, but then why would the light up there be on? It was never on before... Plus he told us not to go up there. Suspicious. I anxiously paced around the kitchen during those 15 minutes. When I pulled out the clothes after the short cycle, they weren't hot at all. In fact, it hardly seemed like they had been dried. I figured that was a good sign. I set the cycle for two hours and headed back into the bedroom to try and sleep. 

I laid there for the longest time, stressing out about the loud dryer! I couldn't fall asleep, thinking of poor Guido in that loft right above the racket I had created. Just as soon as I fell asleep, the alarm woke me up to go check on the clothes again. They were pretty hot- but not Grenoble Dyer Hot- and dry, just a tad damp. I brought them into our room and laid them around. Giuseppe slept soundly through all of this. Finally I crawled back into bed, and again struggled to fall asleep, stressing about poor Guido and how I had ruined his sleep. Eventually I did fall right to sleep, but once again, just as I hit a deep slumber the alarm rang loudly, waking us up for the day. I was shocked the night had passed so quickly. I told Giuseppe about my stressful night and he assured me Guido had told us he lived somewhere else. We laughed about it. 

The reason we woke up early was to go to the Galleria dell’Accademia in order to see Michelangelo's DAVID before the crowds came in. We brushed our teeth and threw on some warm clothes and left. I’m so glad we did because it wasn’t too crowded and I had such an amazing experience. 

The art is incredible in that museum. I wish I remembered more from the art history class I took 5 years ago... When we walked into the main room with David, I was mesmerized. He's so TALL. He seemed so lifelike with veins and tendons and hair chiseled in the stone. It was incredible. I loved the room full of sculptures of women. They looked so powerful yet so graceful and natural. It truly was an amazing museum, probably my favorite. It was such a peaceful way to start the day, and the excitement of it all gave me all the energy I needed.

After getting ready and checking out of the Airbnb we went to the outdoor market again. I saw a really pretty purse and of course when the sales guy from Bangladesh saw me glancing at it he used all of his gimmicks to get me to buy it. I really HATE that environment. I feel so bad for these foreigners who look so poverty-stricken and I can't help but imagine their starving families back home (is that even the case? I don’t know) and I feel so terrible not buying their products. 

He offered the bag for 45 euro after “giving me so many special discounts” and I thought it was a fair price. It really did seem to be real leather and it was a larger purse. But it wasn't good enough for Giuseppe. He loves to haggle and he eventually got it down to 25 euro! I honestly felt really terrible paying that low. The poor Bangladesh man can't feed his family on such a small profit! It makes me cringe thinking about it.

We left the market and went to the Lindt café again for another cup of thick, gooey hot chocolate.

We walked past a retail store and Giuseppe, being the savvy retail man that he is, wanted to compare the leather jackets here to the ones we had looked at the other day at the market. He fell in love with a caramel colored sheep leather jacket that fit him perfectly and was much softer and sturdier than the one he had tried on the day before. Turns out the store owner is a legit leather guy with stores all over the world and the price of the jacket (no haggling here) was over half the price of the jacket from the market. Apparently those market guys REALLY rip people off. I was surprised because he seemed so trustworthy! I am very naïve when it comes to the retail world. Good thing Giuseppe's not. Anyway, we ended up BUYING the jacket... It really is an amazing jacket and it will probably change his life, right? The owner also confirmed that my purse is in fact real leather. Score!

Anyway, after all this we had to catch our bus to Bologna. Leaving Florence was sad! It's definitely a city to revisit. 

When we arrived in Bologna we walked around the city in search of a place to eat. I was starving. Giuseppe kept vetoing every restaurant we passed for some reason or another and I was getting extremely hangry. I finally told him I'd had enough with his pickiness and walked into the next restaurant we passed. I told him I would be eating there with or without him. 

It was a really modern pasta bar, it looked like something that would be popular in Utah with it's bright white walls, wooden furniture, and industrial lighting. We went upstairs to find a table and wait for our buzzer to go off. We sat down at a 4- person table because it had a nice leather couch. Shortly after we sat down, another couple came over and sat on the couch across us. A server came over to investigate “what was wrong” and Giuseppe had to explain to her repeatedly that we didn’t mind sharing a large table with strangers. We ended up chatting with these strangers for over an hour and became good friends! They are a couple from Brazil and long into the conversation we found out that they had gotten engaged TWO hours earlier!! They were such neat people, we loved getting to know them and more about their culture and their perceptions of Europe. They also shared their authentic pão de queijo recipe with us!

Checking into our Airbnb was the BIGGEST letdown. So far we have been really lucky with awesome Airbnb’s but this was not the case. Our host Pierre was super friendly, but his place was awful. It reeked of cigarette smoke. He had the most annoying, yapping dog. The place was worn down, our bedroom door was slightly off the hinges and needed full body strength to scrape it across the floor to close it. The bed was thin and lumpy with paper thin, yellowing sheets. And it was messy! Our room was fine, but our shared bathroom was cluttered with dirty towels, half empty bottles of product, and hair. There was mold on the ceiling too. He and all his friends were in the secret, curtained off living room smoking and being really loud. I HATED it. Living in someone else’s filth is a nightmare. 

I was mad because all the reviews for this place were awesome and I’ve come to expect a certain level of cleanliness from Airbnb. I had to talk myself into a little attitude adjustment. It was too late to do anything about it, so I reminded myself how lucky I was to be traveling and that we would hardly be in there anyway and that this would make us all the more grateful in the future when we can afford to stay at nice places. Giuseppe had a really good attitude about it, so I could too. 

We left for dinner quickly and eventually ended up at a pizza restaurant. It was a really pretty, nice looking restaurant but NOBODY was there! We were shown to a table but waited a long time for a server. When Giuseppe asked him (in Italian) how he was doing, he said something I could tell was negative. I was confused and when he left, Giuseppe said the waiter had said he was bad, but then quickly said he was kidding... but it didn’t sound like it. After that we felt very intrusive. It was so lifeless in the restaurant, we asked them if they could put on music and light the candle at our table. Our pizza, however, was amazing. Probably the best yet. And so cheap! 

Afterwards we walked through the city. Bologna is more modern than Florence or Rome, with lots and lots of shopping. The reason we went to Bologna was because it was one of Giuseppe’s favorite cities he served in AND it’s the birthplace of a lot of Italian dishes, like lasagna and tortellini and ragù.

We ended the night with a trip to a Gelatoria. The gelato wasn't that great, but we had the best time talking and laughing. I asked Giuseppe what kind of book he would write if he had to, and he came up with the most generic, cheesy love story that he’d call, “The Lost City of My Heart” hahahaha so hideous. We were laughing so hard!

italy journal #5: a chocolate dream, a narrow stone staircase, a long stroll, and the worst massage

monday

22 gennaio 2018

I didn't want today to end. I love Florence. We spent the morning at an outdoor market full of high pressure sales reps. My personal hell, Giuseppe’s personal heaven. He asked a million questions and haggled down prices but never bought a thing. It was a nightmare for me. But it was fun to watch him practice his Italian. 

You should of seen the way this guy treated the leather jacket he was showing us, trying to prove it was real leather by burning it and violently stabbing it with scissors. It was hilarious!

I wanted to stop and get hot chocolate somewhere because it was pretty cold and I was dying to try European hot chocolate. We found a Lindt café! Anyone who knows me well knows that I LOVE Lindt chocolate. Luckily, the café lived up to its name! It was all white with bright lights coming from gold light fixtures. There were grand displays filled with chocolate in every form and flavor you can imagine. It was heavenly! We ordered hot chocolate and it was SO good. So thick and sweet, almost like the inside of a lindt chocolate ball!

What's even better is that it's right next to the Duomo. My two favorite things, side by side. 

After finishing our chocolate, we got in line to see the inside the cathedral. We made some friends in line, a couple from Colorado. Believe it or not, the inside of the Duomo was kind of a let down! It wasn’t as grand as the outside. I mean it was massive and designed beautifully, but most of the walls were bare, unlike the very intricate exterior. Also odd because it seems like all other cathedrals are heavily detailed on the inside. Oh well, I still love it. Later in the day we bought tickets to go up to the dome. To get up there we had to climb so many steep, narrow stone stairs. It was a bit freaky, but SO worth it because the art inside the dome is amazing.

The mural on the inside of the massive dome is incredible. There is SO much detail, I could have stared at it for hours. Giuseppe eventually had to pull me away. The painting was divided into three three levels, with the bottom level representing hell. There were demons torturing naked people in the most brutal ways. The next level was heaven with people in colorful robes worshipping with Christ with cherubs floating around. And the very top of the dome were grand depictions of angels and Christ. I don’t understand how artists centuries and centuries ago managed to create this. We saw tiny little doors in the dome where I guess the artists would come out of to paint, laying upside down. CRAZY!

Later, outside on top of the dome, we got an amazing view of Florence. Florence lives up to its terracotta roof reputation! It’s such a beautiful city packed with old yellow buildings, red roofs, tiny cobblestone streets, grand cathedrals, castles, and beautiful bridges over the wide river. 

We absolutely loved every second being up there. 

For lunch we went to the indoor food market again. Giuseppe ordered a couple of sandwiches with some type of stinky cheese he loves. I thought was putrid. He has a more European palate than me. I found a little Chinese place that made vegetarian crêpes and it was amazing! I never knew eating a crêpe with chopsticks was a thing but it was actually really easy.

We spent the afternoon exploring the side of the city on the river. He showed me Ponte Vecchio which is the most picturesque shopping area I’ve ever seen! It felt like the 1700s. I saw the most beautiful pink opal ring on display in an elegant store on the bridge. Giuseppe said, "its 38 euro!" and I immediately imagined the charmed life I would lead with that ring on my finger when I chose that as my souvenir. When he saw my excitement he said, "sorry I mean 380 euro." Oh. 

We then took a long stroll up to the top of a hill for another view of the city. It was probably a few miles because we didn't finish walking until sundown. It started on narrow, winding cobblestone road between colorful walls covered in vines and then later on the road let us to a picturesque broad avenue lined with trees. It was such a beautiful walk! We made friends with another couple headed to the top. Well Giuseppe did, I don’t speak Italian! I noticed the guy had one of those bracelets the Africans in Rome were “giving out for free”. 
Our goal was to end up at Piazza Michelangelo, but unfortunately it was dark by the time we got there. So no good pictures, but it was cool to see the city lit up at night.

Our goal was to end up at Piazza Michelangelo, but unfortunately it was dark by the time we got there. So no good pictures, but it was cool to see the city lit up at night. 

After dinner that night- a Florence steak for me and pasta carbonara for him- we headed to MIA CARRA, the spa we reserved massages from on groupon a while back. Ironically it was right across the street from our airbnb! What are the odds? When we booked the reservation, we were prepared for something quite low quality because it was confusingly cheap.

We were told beforehand to bring a swimsuit, so after we were given instructions on how to get up to the spa on the top floor, we changed into our suits. We walked around the room for a bit, looking at the two massage beds in the dark room with colorful lights and white curtains. Waited. And waited. But nobody came! I picked up a menu and looked through the services offered. Even thought I don't read Italian, I was able to find out pretty quickly that to book a masseuse there is an extra charge! haha! So we had booked the whole spa for two hours with no masseuse. I was laughing so hard because the ad was so misleading. Or maybe we are just fools and all spa reservations require an additional masseuse reservation? We wouldn't know, we've only been to the spa once. Regardless, we found the situation hilarious.

Luckily we were able to use the hot tub which had a cool view of the city from the open window. We had no intention of sitting in there for a full two hours, so then we sat in the sauna for a bit. Not a fan!! Steam rooms are way better, I hate the feeling of my skin getting so tight. With still about an hour left in our reservation, we decided to go ahead and give each other massages! What we thought was a really great deal for massages turned into a pretty expensive hot tub fee, so we wanted to get our money's worth.

It was so hilarious, I couldn't stop laughing during my massage. Giuseppe gave me a decent massage, but apparently I am not gifted at all in the massage department. Sorry G!

After that debacle we headed back into the city to wander around and get gelato! So it wasn't the relaxing night we were planning on but definitely a memorable night.

And of course we finished off the day with another walk around the DUOMO. Florence is magical.

italy journal #4: the day I stumbled across the DUOMO

sunday
21 gennaio 2018

This stupid jet lag is putting a wrench in our plans! We stayed out super late last night because we weren't tired at all and of course we just couldn't seem to get up in the morning. Oh well, at least we feel nice and rested.

We spent the late morning making pasta for breakfast (yup) and packing up our things. Unfortunately we had to check out of our airbnb several hours before our bus to Florence, so we went to the train station to rent a locker. It took us a while to locate the actual spot for luggage holding because the check-in was translated to “left luggage” so we thought it meant lost luggage. After a bit I realized it was just a bad translation and I excitedly pointed out to Giuseppe why. Is it just me or is it such a treat to spot bad translations?

We wanted to go to the pantheon, so we got on the metro. However, on the way there we walked past the Spanish steps and I just fell in love with the vibe! The sun was shining, it was warm, there street performers playing live music, and the buildings around us were so colorful and charming. 

To be honest, I can't really tell you what the Spanish steps even are or why they're so famous. I just felt so happy there, singing the Greatest Showman soundtrack in my head and being surrounded by a beautiful part of Europe. It was so clean and manicured, unlike most of Rome. And while I love being surrounded by crumbling ruins and the busy metropolis that is Rome, it was nice to be in an area of the city that was really clean and elegant. There was a beautiful basilica at the top of the steps that we walked through. Giuseppe wasn't as into the Spanish steps vibe as I was, so we walked further along through the city. It really is such a pretty part of the city, with its colorful buildings and narrow cobblestone streets.

Giuseppe by some fancy car and a Melania Trump lookalike doing that classic "where have I seen you before?" face

We ended up spending all of our afternoon wandering around, and then it was time to catch our bus to Florence. So, next time, Pantheon. 
We arrived in Florence around 7. We really got lucky with our airbnb! It's only a short walk from the bus station, and it's located on a narrow, cobblestone street on the top floor of an old building. Our host is named Guido and he and Giuseppe really hit it off. They were speaking in Italian for the longest time, but it was fun to listen to them! Guido's apartment is perfect, it has a small but newly renovated and modern-looking kitchen, a washing machine WITH A DRYER (a rare find in Europe!), and we even have our own bathroom in our room. Everything is clean and tasteful as well :)

I've always wanted to stay in a place with clown art. One more item off the bucket list checked off!

For dinner we went to a huge indoor market and walked around before finally deciding on soup for me and some kind of sandwich for Giuseppe. It's such a fun market, everything is modern and artsy, and extremely lively. We got a cannoli for dessert and I think this was called a Sicilian cake? That is a green maraschino cherry on top. We are really into desserts later, we finished watching Zumbo's Just Desserts (highly recommend it on Netflix!) awhile ago and are dead set on traveling to Australia to go to Zumbo's store. 

After dinner we walked around the city. I suppose why I so deeply appreciated the Spanish steps this morning is because THIS is what Europe is like 70% of the time... 

graffiti. everywhere. 
But I won't dwell on that because seriously Florence is BEAUTIFUL and soon we came across the most magnificent piece of architecture I've ever seen... the DUOMO. There's a "duomo" in almost every Italian city, it's just a name for a cathedral or basilica. Like in France there's a "Notre Dame" in almost every city. Anyway, the Florence Duomo about killed me. Giuseppe didn't tell me we were about there (he lived in Florence for a bit on his mission), so when I rounded the corner I did not expect to see it. I literally staggered backwards because I couldn't believe it. It's nestled in between the regular city buildings, casually placed on the cobblestone. These pictures are just horrible, because seriously this thing is massive and more intricate than I could ever describe. It was built in the TWELVE HUNDREDS and I've never seen a style like this. There was hardly anyone walking around  because it was so late. We walked around the whole thing to take it all in. It was silent, and the only light was coming from the surrounding buildings. It was probably the most mesmerizing experience of my life. I don't know how anything can top the Florence duomo. 

The Duomo is designed in the shape of a cross, though of course it's hard to tell when you're just walking around it. It's so BIG. There's also a separate baptistry and tower, designed with the same stipes and patterns in white, gold, pink, and green. I LOVE it. 

This is the highlight of the trip. The highlight of all travels. Maybe even the highlight of my life?